Prefabricated houses



June 20, 1961 R. THYER PREFABRICATED HOUSES 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Aug. 17, 1954 om mm INVENTOR.

ROGER THYER ATTOR NEYS June 20, 1961 R. THYER 2,988,742

PREFABRICATED HOUSES Original Filed Aug. 17, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

ROGER THYER 5 BY I \Q Q mf fi m ATTORNEYS materials such, for example, as lap siding.

'ed wall.

United States Patent 2,988,742 PREFABRICATED HOUSES Roger Thyer, Piqua, Ohio, assignor to Inland Homes Corporation, Piqua, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Original application Aug. 17, 1954, Ser. No. 450,440, now Patent No. 2,892,192, dated June 30, 1959. Divided and this application Apr. 27, 1959, Ser. No. 808,994 9 Claims. (Cl. 1--125) This invention relates to prefabricated houses. More particularly the invention has relation to the prefabrication of wall sections for prefabricated houses, and it .is especially concerned with the exterior finishing of such wall sections.

As is well known, shingles are an excellent exterior finishing material for use on a house, from the several standpoints of general appearance, performance, and especially initial cost as compared with other preferred However, the use of shingles offers one disadvantage in the labor required for their application. The handling of individual shingles necessarily consumes a corresponding amount of time and labor, and specific provision must also be made for maintaining all shingles in each row in the proper horizontal alignment. In addition, since shingles are of random widths, it is virtually always necessary to saw by hand a single shingle of the proper width to .complete each row, in order to fill the space between the next to last shingle and the corner boards, window or door frame or other part which terminates the row, and this is an especially costly operation in terms of both time and labor.

This difiiculty involved in the exterior finishing of house walls is especially important in prefabricating operations. Thus if the shingling is done at the building site, it normally requires the services of skilled carpenters at correspondingly high labor rates, and even a skilled carpenter can not too greatly speed up the application of individual shingles, especially on an already erect- The application of individual shingles at the factory while the wall sections are horizontal requires somewhat less physical effort, but it is still time consuming.

enables the shingles to be applied to each wall section ing erection of the house at the building site and which will thus reduce both the time and labor required for completion of the house.

It is also an object of the invention to provide apparatus as outlined above which is adjustable in accordance with the length of the individual shingle assemblies "or pallets to be produced thereby.

" Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description, the accom- 'panying' drawings and-the appended claims.

In the drawings- FIG. 1 is a view in side elevation of a portion of a prefabricated house constructed in accordance with the invention and with portions broken away to illustrat details of internal construction; FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragment of FIG. 1; 7 FIG. 3 is a fragmentary section on the line 33 of FIG. 2; I

FIG. 4 is a further enlarged fragmentary section on the line 44'of FIG. 2; g

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary section through the gabled end wall of the house shown in FIG. 1 and on a somewhat larger scale; 9 FIG. 6 is an extended, two-part view showing somewhat diagrammatically an arrangement of apparatus forming a production line for carrying out the method of assembly and connecting shingles in accordance with the invention; -i

FIG. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary section taken on the line 7--7 of FIG. 6; and

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary perspective view looking generally from left to right in FIG. 6. J

Referring to the drawings, which illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention, the house shown fragmentarily in FIGS. l-5 includes a plurality of prefabricated wall sections 10 and a foundation 11 supporting a fioor 12, and the house is provided with endgables 13 and trusses 14 cooperating with the roof -15. Each of the wall sections 10 is shown as comprising .a bottom plate 20, a top plate 21 and a plurality of vertical studs 22, these frame parts being formed of standard 2 x 4 lumber. Since it is not practical to handle a single wall section of greater length than 16 to 18 feet, two or more sections are nailed or bolted together to form the longer walls of the house, the joints between sections at the corners of the house being provided with corner members 24 such as boards or shingles. Frames 25 of conventional construction are inserted in the window or door openings in each wall section -10.

The exterior finishing of each of the wall section 10 is provided by multiple rows of double course shingles, an outer course of shingles 30 and an inneror under course of shingles 31. The butts of the outer course shingles overlie the butts of the under course shingles by a predetermined distance as shown, and these outer course shingles are preferably of a finished and high grade, but since the under course shingles are wholly covered, they may be of an inferior grade. Between the shingles and the frame of the wall section is a layer of sheathing 33, which may advantageously be of wood or of a fiber or other suitable insulating board nailed directly to the studs 22. The prefa'bricating operations of the invention include substantially complete construction of these wall sections 10 at the factory in order to reduce to a minimum the requirements of labor and time at the building site.

In accordance with the invention, the under and outer course shingles in each row are preassembled and connected by a substantially continuous wooden strip 35 of a lesser width than the distance by which .the outer course shingles overhang the under course shingles, satisfactory results having been obtained with these strips'35 formed by conventional plaster laths. The strip 35 is superimposed on the outer course shingles 30 near but spaced below the tips thereof, and it is secured to both courses of shingles by small nails or equivalent means such as wire stitches or staples 36. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 8, each long strip 35 is composed of a plurality of shorter length sections of ship lap construction as indicated at 37 to provide an essentially continuous strip in each complete shingle assembly or pallet.

' FIGS. 6-8 illustrate diagrammatically the method of preassembling shingles on an elongated work table 40 which incorporates the apparatus of the invention and is shown as tilted to a convenient working angle and having supporting legs 41. Along the front edge of the *work table is a guide member 42 which has a generally 'Z-shaped configuration providing offset guide strips 44 and 45 for receiving the butt ends of the shingles 30 and 31 respectively, and the Z-shape of this guide member minimizes frictional contact thereof with the shingles as shown in FIG. 7. In addition, the under course shingles 31 are shown as riding on a conveyor belt 46 which may be provided with a suitable drive motor (not shown) and which is arranged at a downward angle in the direction of travel of the shingles along the work table in order to impart a biasing force tending to urge the shingles into the properly maintained guided contact with the guide strips 44 and 45. Preferably the belt 46 will travel continuously at a faster rate than the shingles to maintain a continuous frictional drive on the shingles while permitting them to slip with respect to the belt.

In practicing the invention on this work table, the under and outer course shingles are super-imposed by hand at the assembling station formed by the left hand end of the table as viewed in FIG. 6, with proper care being taken to have the junction between each adjacent pair of under course shingles 31 covered by an outer -course shingle 30. The assembled but still unconnected "shingles then pass under a guiding and holding member 50 shown as a metal strap supported by overhanging brackets 51 and having its left hand end turned up at '52 to guide the successive shingles thereunder. Downward pressure on the advancing shingles is also maintained by an idler roller 55 mounted by shaft 56 on brackets 57 to overlie the advancing outer courseshingles,

and this roller may be duplicated and provided with a belt similar to the belt 46 if desired.

The successive laths which form the connecting strip 35 are superimposed on the-advancing shingles as :they approach the securing station represented by the electrically operated stitcher indicated generally at 60, and the guide member 50 serves also as a guide for the placing of these laths. The securing operation is preferably performed at relatively close intervals in order to assure that the parts are all properly secured together, satisfactory results having been obtained with staples or stitches applied at intervals of the order of two inches, and the ends of these staples or stitches are preferably clinched, as indicated in FIG. 4, as by having a suitably hard surface or back-up plate on table 40 at the securing station. For automatic operation of the stitcher 60, a control switch 61 may be mounted on the work table adjacent the path of the shingles for actuation by a cam wheel 62 riding on the lath strips 35 and designed to actuate the switch 61 periodically at the desired frequency as explained above.

The assembled and connected shingles advance beyond the securing station'until they reach the desired length. Accordingly, the work table is desirably equipped with w an adjustable stop 65 spaced beyond a severing station represented by a hand operated power saw 66. The stop 65 .ismounted for adjustment lengthwise of the table to the proper fixed distance beyond the saw 66, as in dicated at 67. The saw is in turn mounted on a frame 68 and operates in a slot 69 in the table top. Thus when the assembled shingle pallet reaches the desired length established by contact'with the stop 65, it is merely necessary to interrupt the feed long enough to operate the saw 66 to cut off the portion of the shingles between the saw and the stop, after which the assembling operation proceeds following removal of the cut length from the table.

FIG. 6 also shows a saw 70 mounted between the stitcher 60 and saw 66 and operating lengthwise of the table on a stand 71 in cooperation with a slot 72 in the table top. This saw is used optionally to trim the tips of the assembled shingles extending beyond the strip 35, the resulting trimmed shingle pallets being utilized in special locations on the wall section as described below. For general use, however, the tips of the single pallets remain untrimmed as shown in FIG. 5.

The shingle pallets assembled as described in connection with FIGS. 6-8 are applied to the wall sections in the manner illustrated in FIGS. 1-5. The several rows of shingles are applied successively one above the other by first nailing the strip 35 of each pallet to each of the studs 22 as indicated at 75, and the butts of the under course shingles of each successive row are then seated on top of the strip 35 of the next lower row. All outer course shingles are then finally secured in place by means of nails 77 positioned to secure the butt end of each shingle 30 directly to the strip 35 on the next lower row, thus establishing a strong construction since each nail 77 traverses not only the thick portion of a shingle 30 and the strip 35 but also the tips of the next lower inner and outer course shingles as well as the sheathing 33 as shown in FIG. 4. It will be apparent that equivalent fastening means such as staples or stitches can be used in place of and as equivalent to the nail 77.

Since the shingles in each pallet assembled as described in connection with FIGS. 6-8 are held together only by the supporting strip 35 of the pallet, which may extend to a length as great as the 16 to 18 foot width of a single wall section, the individual pallets are quite limber and may require relatively careful handling, especially in the longer lengths. This is not disadvantageous, however, since in factory prefabricating operations, the shingling is most conveniently done with the wall sections lying horizontally so there are no particular stresses thereon while the pallet is being nailed in place. It is therefore unnecessary to nail or otherwise to secure the butts of the shingles together prior to application to the wall section,'thus further saving in time and materials.

The apparatus of the invention results in the production of shingle pallets in which both the under and outer courses of shingles have their side edges in flush coplanar relation at both ends .of the row, and the length of each pallet may be accurately predetermined by the setting of the stop 65. It is therefore possible to form such pallets in proper lengths to fit precisely between the corner members 24 and door or window frames 25 or between adjacent frames 25 in the same wall section, thus eliminating a large proportion of the otherwise necessary special cutting and fitting of the last shingle in each row as described above, and the invention also facilitates joining the rows of shingles at the junction between adjacent wall sections on the same wallof the house.

Referring toFIG. 1, it will be noted that gaps are shown between the shingles adjacent the junction between the left hand pair of wall sections, which gaps are readily formed by removing one or two shingles from the end of the strip 35 to avoid a butt joint between both the under and outer course shingles in the same vertical plane. These gaps are laced in during erection of the house by means of individually applied shingles, but since this represents a relatively small proportion of the total shingling operation and would in any case be required for conventional shingle application, it does not appreciably detract from the advantages of the invention as outlined above. FIG. 1 also shows a strip of building paper 78 covering the junction between the end studs on adjacent wall sections to assure a weather-tight joint.

The precise manner of application of the bottom row of shingles depends upon whether the house is built with a floor as shown at 12 in FIG. 5 or on a concrete slab in place of the foundation 11. For a house to be erected with 'a floor, the bottom row of shingles is advantageously applied at the building-site in the form of special pallets constructed as shown in FIG. 5 with a spacer strip 80 nailed to the back of the butts of the outer course shingles,

of sh s. le lmna l q along its lower edge at the factory to provide for proper application of the bottom row at the site as shown. The lower edge of the lowermost pallets is nailed directly through the strip 80 into the sill 81 to cover the floor and the joists 82. For houses to be built on a slab, the bottom row of shingles maybe applied at the factory with the spacer 80 being nailed directly into the bottom plate 20.

FIG. also shows the manner of finishing the 'junction between the top of a wall section and the end'gable 13. The top row of shingles on the wall section has its tips trimmed as indicated at 85 and as described in connection with the saw 70 in FIG. 6. The gable is shingled with preassembled shingles in essentially the same manner as the wall sections, with the bottom row being applied in such position as to overhang and fit with the top row on the wall section as shown in FIG. 5. A similar row of trimmed shingles can be used along the top of the side wall sections and then finished by a top facing board 88, preferably after removing the strip 35 therefrom, or the top shingle row can be separately applied in the form of individual shingles.

It will therefore be apparent that the invention greatly facilitates the use of shingles in the prefabnication of houses by reducing both the time and the labor required for shingling operations. Since the shingles are automatically properly aligned during preassembly and connection with the strips 35, correctly aligned placement of all rows on the wall is readily obtained. In addition, both the assembling and the application of the shingle pallets are so simple that both operations can be performed by relatively unskilled help, correspondingly reducing the labor cost, and these advantages are further enhanced by the reduction in the time and labor required for erection of the house due to the greater amount of work which can be done at the factory as a result of the invention. At the same time, the entire operation including the preassembly and the application of the pallets is so greatly accelerated as compared with the use of individual shingles that the wall sections can be shingled at substantially the same rate required for initial assembly of each section frame, thus assuring steady operation of the complete factory production line and resulting in reduced overall cost of the finished house.

The invention is also important as providing a properly insulated and weatherproof wall section at minimum cost, and especially as making practical the use of highly economical sheathing and exterior finishing materials on the same wall. Thus while the shingle pallets of the invention can be utilized in conjunction with wooden sheathing, entirely satisfactory results may be obtained with the use of sheathing of the asphalt-impregnated pressed fiber type which could not as a practical matter be utilized with conventional individually applied shingles because it is too soft to hold nails with adequate firmness. With the present invention, however, the reinforcing strips of the shingle pallets provide both for securing these pallets directly to the studding and also for securing the individual shingles together and to the wall as a whole even when such relatively soft sheathing is used. At the same time, the use of an asphalt-impregnated sheathing eliminates the conventionally required building paper over the entire wall which should otherwise be used for proper sealing, with resulting further economy of production and materials.

This application is a division of my application Serial No. 450,440, filed August 17, 1954, and now issued to the same assignee as Patent No. 2,892,192 on June 30, 1959.

While the form of apparatus herein described constitutes a preferred embodiment of the invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to this precise form of apparatus, and that changes may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention which is defined in the appended claims.

6 Whatisclaimedisz- 1. Apparatus for prefabricatin'g a wall "sectio lfof ja house, comprising anelongated work' table, conveyor means arranged to advance successive shingles lengthwise of said table, guide means onsaid table providing a pair of guide tracks extending lengthwise of said table and spaced laterally of said table for receiving and guiding the butt ends of respectively under and outer courses of shingles, a guide member overlying said tableand spaced laterally thereof from saidtracks to overhang both of said shingle courses at a position located near but in spaced relation with the tips of said outer course shingles and to locate a wooden strip lengthwise of said table in overlying relation with said shingles, means carried by said table for securing said strip to each of said shingles during the advance thereof to form a continuous assembly, stop means on said table for abutting the leading end of said advancing assembly, and means carried by said table at a location between said securing means and said stop means for severing said assembly laterally thereof to provide flush leading and trailing ends thereon.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, comprising means for adjusting one of said stop means and said severing means lengthwise of said table to change the length of the portion of said assembly severed by said severing means.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said conveyor means comprises a continuous belt having one flight thereof overlying said table to advance said shingles by frictional engagement therewith and to move with respect to said assembly while the leading end of said assembly is in abutting relation with said stop means.

4. Apparatus as defined in claim 3 comprising a continuous belt arranged at a converging angle with respect to said side tracks in the direction of movement thereof to urge said shingles into guided engagement between the butt ends thereof and said tracks during the advancing movement thereof.

5. In apparatus for prefabricating a wall section of a house, the combination of an elongated work table, conveyor means arranged to advance successive shingles lengthwise of said table, and guide means on said table providing a pair of guide tracks extending lengthwise of said table and spaced laterally of said table for receiving and guiding the butt ends of respectively under and outer courses of shingles in correspondingly spaced relation with each other.

6. Apparatus as defined in claim 5 wherein said conveyor means comprises a continuous belt overlying said table to advance said shingles by frictional engagement with the under surfaces thereof.

7. Apparatus as defined in claim 6 comprising a continuous belt arranged at a converging angle with respect to said tracks in the direction of movement thereof to urge said shingles into guided engagement between the butt ends thereof and said tracks during the advancing movement thereof.

8. In apparatus for prefabricating a Wall section of a house, the combination of an elongated work table, conveyor means arranged to advance successive shingles lengthwise of said table, guide means on said table providing a pair of guide tracks extending lengthwise of said table and spaced laterally of said table for receiving and guiding the butt ends of respectively under and outer courses of shingles in correspondingly spaced relation with each other, and a guide member overlying said table and spaced laterally thereof from said tracks and parallel therewith to overhang both of said shingle courses at a position located near but in spaced relation with the tips of said outer course shingles.

9. In apparatus for prefabricating a wall section of a house, the combination of an elongated work table, a conveyor belt arranged to travel generally lengthwise along the surface of said table for receiving and conveying successive shingles along said table, a first guide track extending generally lengthwise of said table and 2,938,?4-"2 r I I spaced laterally thereof from said belt for receiving and ends of-the upper course of shingles carried on said lower guiding the butt ends .of the shingles traveling on .said 9 fi v belt to align such shingles ,into an under course, said first Rgfgrgncgs Cited in the file of this patent guide track being of predetermined height with respect UNITED STATES PATENTS to said belt providing for overlapping of said under 5 1254779 Craig Jan 29 1918 course of shingles by an outer course of shingles resting 1931 on and carried by said 'under course, and a second guide 025,135 Wagner 24, 193 5 track extending parallel and in laterally spaced re ation 2,503,942 F nk May 23, 1950 with said first track for receiving and guiding the butt 10 2,876,451 Dickinson Mar. 10, 1959 

